REVIEW: Slenderbodies @ Sonia 10/11
By Kristyn Mize
Photos by Shereen Kheradyar
Have you ever been inside a lava lamp? Yeah, me neither… until walking into Sonia on Friday night. Slenderbodies transported me to an ethereal third space with their live alchemy light show and their sublime soundscape. The California Psych-Rock duo from Los Angeles transformed the scene from an intimate little room in Cambridge, to a floating mass of hypnotic colors, beats, and organisms.
Taking the stage face-to-face, front men and college friends Benji Cormack and Max Vehuni dove straight into delicate guitar riffs. They opened with their aqueous instrumental track “Opal Ocean, Pt. 2” off their freshman concept album Fabulist. The pair instantly captivated the senses and set the dream-state for the rest of the show.
What came next was a whole new sensory experience: Max melted the audience with his soft, yet powerful falsetto croons in their hits “Gray” and “Mirage” from the same album. In these first three songs, Max and Benji were alone together, but still exploring this third dimension with the crowd. Like a single unit, the audience swayed and swooned to Slenderbodies’ sonic eddy.
Benji excitedly asked if we wanted to hear tracks from their debut record, Komorebi (released just 3 weeks prior), and received a wildly positive response. Komorebi (a Japanese word for the way sunlight filters through the leaves of trees ) was inspired by the Mendocino Forest in midwestern California. The pair doesn’t just make music, they architect entire atmospheres with their sounds.
They proceeded to play “Nothing,” “Ruminate,” and “Dewdrops,” respectively hitting themes like fleeting youth, welcoming change, and embracing solitude as a creative haven. The supple beats and enduring falsetto painted surreal images of nature’s magical qualities. It’s not easy to sing in that range for an entire set, but Max pulled it off with stamina and steez.
For every stop on their tour, the band has gifted their audiences with a cover of a different mystery song… they graced Cambridge with a dewy dream-pop take on Panic! at the Disco’s “I Write Sins Not Tragedies.” Crowd participation was hardly lacking during this cross-genre performance – not a single person could resist the urge to sing along.
When they played “Arrival,” Benji called on the audience to throw their hands up and help him out with the song’s subsequent ‘da da da’ vocals. It was as if he was the moon, and us his magnetic tides.
They ended the official show with tracks “Let Me Take You Home” and “Belong” – two of their more popular recent releases. The duo added an extra flare to these funk-infused tunes with playful guitar licks and slinky hushed vocals.
But it didn’t end there. No way could the band leave without quenching our thirst for the crowd favorite. They were teasing us.
To no one’s surprise, they humbly strutted back on stage, sporting inevitable grins as the crowd chanted for an encore. And damn did they deliver!
Max and Benji played a double feature: “Anemone” and “Senses.”
The lava lamp light projections coupled with the enchanting ebb and flow of “Anemone” put the whole room in a trance. It was a multi-sensory experience: a deep-sea dive into a blend of aquatic sounds, lead vocals, and gorgeous harmonies.
“Senses” concluded the show and this performance championed the song’s keynotes. Slenderbodies’ music cultivates an arena for audiences to explore and interact with. I swear I touched, smelled, tasted, heard, and undoubtedly felt during this last song.
Slenderbodies truly pushes emotional, musical and artistic boundaries with their luscious sonic palette. They conceptualize and construct their melodies with just guitar and vocals; the duo tactfully limits themselves to the basics when building their sound, and their live performances are a testament to their ingenuity.
